Globally Downscaled Climate Data |
Provided below are links to globally-downscaled data. This archive is currently being expanded, and a new interactive interface will be added at at the Green Data Oasis hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Lab. To facilitate their use in the meantime, complete, 150-year files are provided. This follows the approach, file formatting and naming convention of the U.S.-wide dataset available here; please see documentation of that dataset for details of the downscaling method and run numbers associated with each file. Details on how this method was adapted for global downscaling are in Maurer et al. (2009). Data characteristics are:
If using this data, the description should include the following:
Global climate model output, from the World Climate Research Programme's (WCRP's) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (CMIP3) multi-model dataset (Meehl et al., 2007), were obtained from www.engr.scu.edu/~emaurer/global_data/. These data were downscaled as described by Maurer et al. (2009) using the bias-correction/spatial downscaling method (Wood et al., 2004) to a 0.5 degree grid, based on the 1950-1999 gridded observations of Adam and Lettenmaier (2003).
See references and other information below the table.
IPCC Model I.D. | SRES A2 |
SRES B1 |
SRES A1B |
BCCR-BCM2.0 | |||
CGCM3.1 (T47) | |||
CNRM-CM3 | |||
CSIRO-Mk3.0 | |||
GFDL-CM2.0 | |||
GFDL-CM2.1 | |||
GISS-ER | |||
INM-CM3.0 | |||
IPSL-CM4 | |||
MIROC3.2 (medres) | |||
ECHO-G | |||
ECHAM5/MPI-OM | |||
MRI-CGCM2.3.2 | |||
PCM | |||
CCSM3 | |||
UKMO-HadCM3 |
Global Gridded Observed Data ( from Adam and Lettenmaier, 2003, as modified in Central America per Maurer et al., 2009) are available here (in netCDF; daily are compressed with gzip):
Global daily forcing data for 1950-1999, summarized in Maurer et al., below, are available as >61,000 files in cryptic binary format wrapped up in a 6GB .tgz file here. These are the observationally-derived baseline data for the global downscaling.
References
Adam, J. C. and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Adjustment of global gridded precipitation for systematic bias, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 1–14, 2003.
Maurer, E.P., J.C. Adam, and A.W. Wood: Climate Model based consensus on the hydrologic impacts of climate change to the Rio Lempa basin of Central America, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 13, 183-194, 2009 (connect to online version).
Meehl, G. A., C. Covey, T. Delworth, M. Latif, B. McAvaney, J. F. B. Mitchell, R. J. Stouffer, and K. E. Taylor: The WCRP CMIP3 multi-model dataset: A new era in climate change research, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 88, 1383-1394, 2007.
Wood, A. W., Leung, L. 5 R., Sridhar, V., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Hydrologic implications of dynamical and statistical approaches to downscaling climate model outputs, Climatic Change, 62, 189–216, 2004.
Utilities
For manipulating or extracting data from these files, the NCO utilites are extremely useful, as is the CDAT software. For demonstration, a sample python script is provided, which uses CDAT functionality, for extracting a sub-area from a pair of netCDF files and printing to text/ascii files.
Standard Disclaimer
These data are being made available to provide immediate access for the convenience of interested persons. These are believed to be reliable, though human or mechanical error remain a possibility. Therefore, there is no guarantee as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or correct sequencing of the data. None of those involved in creating, processing, or distributing this information shall be responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the use or results obtained from the use of this information.
Miscellaneous
ctl files and related code. This is related to specific requests, and will not be meaningful otherwise.
Contact: Ed Maurer